Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a server-client system and more specifically to implementing a remote game application server on a computing system.
Description of the Related Art
When a game application executes on a conventional computing system, the gaming application configures the display device to operate in full-screen mode such that only image frames rendered by the game application are visible to the user.
One drawback to the full-screen mode is that the user is not able to see output images produced by another application program while the game application is executed and displayed. Therefore, a user playing a game application is unable to simultaneously operate or interact with another application program running on the same computer. In a situation when the user wants to play a game and operate a non-game application on the same computer the user will not be able to see output images produced by the non-game application because the game application requires the full-screen mode. Similarly if a second user wants to play a game application on the computer while the user executes a different (non-game) application on the same computer, the second user will not be able to see output images produced by the non-game application because the game application requires the full-screen mode.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an approach that allows a first user to play a game application executed by a conventional computing system while the same user or a second user is able to operate and see output images produced by a non-game application program on the conventional computing system.